More than three weeks has passed since the Clean & Tidy Home Show in early October. Emails have  been winging their way back and fourth and phone calls have been made and answered ever since. In fact, it’s not really stopped for us at APDO (Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers, APDO for short).

So it’s only now that I’ve had chance to sit and look back at what really happened over that beautifully blue skied weekend in London.

As a key Partner to the show, APDO had a number of objectives to both partnering and exhibiting:

• To gain new professional organiser members to the Association

• To meet with and gain new partners and sponsors to APDO that align with both our ethics and morals.

• To further promote APDO and all it offers to those who are unaware of us

As the first show of its kind, it was always going to be a gamble as to whether or not our objectives would be met.

We’d already built a good relationship with Penny and her team and were keen to help support the show with our thoughts and opinions on ideas and how they could further connect the two halves of decluttering and cleaning.

There has always been a strong opinion that professional organisers and Declutterers are not cleaners, which is correct. There may also be a misconception that we’re just about throwing everything out – wrong! You’ll most likely find that the majority, if not all, members of APDO have a keen-ness (as do their clients) to keep things from landfill and find alternative solutions than just throwing away. However there is an element of cleaning we have to do when working with our clients therefore the two go hand in hand. So when Penny approached us to be a partner, naturally we jumped at the chance to be involved.

With anything that’s new there is always an element of risk and trail and error. You can’t better improve on anything until you’ve done it the first time and so APDO took the same risks that Penny had in creating this event – to give it a try and put our energy and attention into it. It’s the first event that APDO has ever partnered with let alone have a stand at so it really was a big deal for us.

With a background in events and having run our own conference just a few months before you’d think it would be easy managing just one exhibition stand, community hub events and a main stage talk. Working out the logistics of where items were coming from and going to following the event and what we needed was a lot more stressful than I’d like to admit but we did it. With a band of member volunteers we created a warm and inviting stand with activities and competitions and plenty of information on our courses, workshops for sale and membership. Not only that but we were, of course, talking to many a person about what our members do to support others.

We had chance to mingle with upcycle-ers, eco-friendly cleaning companies, storage and labelling solution providers, other professional organisers, along with the wonderful speakers, hosts and attendees of the event (not to mention a couple of celebs too).

We were bowled over by the friendliness of everyone we met and the feeling that everyone who exhibited were there to support one another.

Naturally, the months of hard work pulling it all together was over in a flash – blink and it’s time to break everything down but was it worth it?

What worked well for APDO:

• Our stand – everyone loved the folding competition (we might just do that one again!)

• The ‘Blind Date’ with a Professional Organiser main stage session

• Networking with other exhibitors

• The balance between cleaning and decluttering

What could be improved for APDO:

• Ask The Expert area (we’re already thinking of ways to improve this – as is Penny and team)

• Community Hub – we needed to promote our session more to get more people in (those who did come loved the lego sorting challenge though)

What we learned:

• Don’t bother bringing all the tricks and ideas for decluttering and organising to showcase on the stand – people only want to talk and learn more about who APDO is.

• Do have a stand that’s interesting to look at with things to do to start the conversation flowing.

• Always have a smile on your face and say hello (we do anyway as we’re very friendly people)

• Get to know your neighbours and other exhibitors – you never know what relationships may be formed going forward

• Get involved – do whatever you can to be out there chatting, providing info and listening to others.

Did we meet our objectives?

Yes. Absolutely. We had a record number of sign-ups from professional organisers who either hadn’t heard of us but loved our sense of community or had heard of us but wanted to know more before taking the plunge.

We met with numerous other exhibitors that align with who we are and our ethics and wanted to build on potential partnerships.

We met people who had never heard of APDO and loved what we offer to our clients either for themselves or others that they know.

More importantly, we were surrounded by people from all walks of life who had passion and purpose.

Will we be back again? Without a doubt! We loved being a partner to Clean & Tidy Home Show – it oozes everything we believe in.

Yes there can always be improvements but that’s life – if you don’t live it and try it, how can you do better?  

APDO can’t wait to be partner to the show for next year and are already making plans – so we’ll see you there!

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